Tag: Subscription »

Last week, I wrote about Playond, a service by Bending Spoons that has been acquiring the mobile publishing rights to premium games and re-releasing them behind a subscription paywall. Since writing the piece, I received quite a few replies about the service, and most of it was negative.

The complaints mostly centered around how certain games didn’t actually verify old purchases properly and would also reset player progress. This definitely makes Bending Spoons seem like a shady player, and so it’s no wonder I started seeing chatter from players wondering why trusted developers would get into bed with such an operation.

Instead of just looking at anecdotal evidence, I decided to follow up on this. Is Playond really that bad? Are developers being tricked? Do said developers actually care about mobile anymore? I started trying to find these answers by reaching out to developers who agreed to be part of the service, and here’s what they said:

You may have seen over the past couple weeks a that a bunch of premium games have suddenly become free. This isn’t a mistake, nor is it some last hurrah before Apple Arcade hits, and it’s important to know that these games aren’t actually becoming free.

What’s happening here is there is a developer called Bending Spoons Apps that is buying up premium games to put them on a service called Playond. Playond seems to be a competitor to Apple Arcade in the sense that it’s taking premium titles, like Fowlst, Crashlands, and MUL.MASH.TAB.BA.GAL.GAL, and putting them behind a $9.99/month paywall. In the course of this transition, the games themselves get updated to be listed as free, but—just like Netflix—you need to log into a subscription account in order to actually play them.

'Tis the season for sales and price drops, and Castaway Paradise has apparently caught the bug as well. Seeing as it's free to download, the upfront cost hasn't changed. However, for a very limited time you can purchase a 12 month VIP subscription for $5 off the regular $29.99 price.

A holiday-themed update is also on its way, which will bring a big new Christmas event (and various goodies, naturally) to the island. The update will also add group chat to the game, but that's not particularly Christmas-y.

You can download Castaway Paradise form the App Store for free, and take advantage of the VIP subscription sale right now. The holiday update will being "in December."

An update has arrived for Any.DO's productivity app, bringing it to version 2.0. The key element of this update is the optimization for users to manage their collective 'lives', allowing them to plan out a productive day for both home life and work life.

Users can send messages to others, be it sending out the latest grocery list to the rest of the family or the latest to-do project to the rest of the team at work. Files can also be shared via Dropbox, with premium users able to upload an unlimited amount to Any.DO. Meanwhile, the app also allows premium users to set up regular reminders and set their own custom background colors.

Any.DO is available to download for free now, with the 'Premium' service discounted to $3 a month/$27 a year for the next two weeks.

TubeAlert is a new app that looks to help Youtube using iOS users to streamline the notification and sharing process.

According to the developer, the app was made to "enhance subscriptions" by creating more traffic to one's channel with instant notifications of newly uploaded videos. In other words, TubeAlert wants to help channels get exposure.

TubeAlert is available for free on the App Store.

When we first had a look at MLB.com At Bat in 2012, we surmised that it was a good app to have for every baseball fan. Thus, it's great to hear that the 2014 edition has been optimized to work with iOS 7.

The app has been completely redesigned, and the new elements pay homage to Apple's latest major re-tooling of its OS. The re-design also encompasses the ability to deliver inline video playback, and new league-wide scoreboard functionality for single-tap expansion.

As before, the app allows for two subscription options ($19.99/year or $2.99/month), and content is free to MLB.com Premium subscribers.

MLB.com At Bat is available on the App Store

MetaMoJi has announced their latest release today: an app inspired by their Note Anytime virtual whiteboard app. Share Anytime uses a similar whiteboard system as their previous app, but now it allows for multiple users to share and simultaneously edit a single document across a very large assortment of devices. I don't just mean different iPads, but iOS, Android, and Windows 8 mobile platforms.

This means up to 100 different users across the world using several different devices can all collaborate on an idea or get together for a virtual meeting incredibly easily. Inviting someone is easily done through Facebook, Twitter, email, or Tumblr, and individual participants can group together and work on various "parts" of the document (i.e. break off into teams) as well. Other features include a virtual laser pointer for the presenter to use, a "pass the chair" option that will allow the presenter to pass control along without ending the meeting, edit tracking in the event you need to go back and check something that's been scribbled over or deleted, and support for 13 different languages.

Share Anytime is available now as a free download for attendees and offers free access for presenters for up to 10 meetings or 1 GB of data transfer. After the 10-day trial for presentations is up, users can then opt to subscribe to the service for 1 GB, 5GB, or 10GB for 1 or 12 months. All with varied rates, of course, starting at $1.99/month for the 1 GB plan. Alternately there's a $1.99 version that gives users a month's worth of 1 GB service right from the start.

I recently discovered something interesting. Checking out Aio Wireless, I discovered I could add data-only service to an old iPhone for as low as $15 per month all-in and no contract.

Aio Wireless is the new LTE pre-paid service from AT&T. It's not listed anywhere that it's run by and uses the AT&T network, but this is mentioned in press releases about the service. They offer both recurring and single month services.

Aio Wireless offers a set limit 250MB tablet rate for just $15/month. With additional GB available to add for $10/month. Not a bad deal. To use the Aio service a SIM card will need to be ordered from the site for $9.99 (make sure to order the correct size for the phone or tablet to use). In my test it got to me in just a day.

Once the account is set up and the SIM is registered for the $15/month tablet plan, the SIM will then work in any iOS device that is unlocked and compatible with the AT&T network. Even an iPhone. Voice and SMS won't work, and don't expect it to since this is just a data service. But iMessage will work as well as any other feature that uses the data connection.

The downside, and it's not a big one, is that the service provided for pre-paid cell phone services like this is never first-tier. Meaning it isn't prioritized on the host network like contract services. Aio Wireless specifies that the LTE service is capped at 8MB. Still a great speed, but well below the 30-40Mbps I have seen on AT&T LTE. So data rates will be slower, but still very usable. Especially considering the price.

I'm guessing this little loophole will be closed eventually, but until then it's a great way to give access to an old iPhone or iPad for an extra device for a relative, to use as a hotspot, or to have a device on another network.

In our review of the Next Issue app and subscription magazine service, we found it to be a great value. And now Next Issue has been updated to include an additional 31 magazines. This brings the total to over 70 magazines still at their original subscription price of $9.99 for the monthly magazines, or $14.99 including the weekly magazines.

The new magazines include: Cosmopolitan, Country Living, Details, Eating Well, Elle Décor, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Family Circle, Family Fun, Food Network Magazine, Golf World (available for Unlimited Premium subscribers), Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, HGTV Magazine, House Beautiful, Ladies’ Home Journal, Living the Country Life, Marie Claire, Midwest Living, More, O, The Oprah Magazine, Redbook, Road & Track, Seventeen, Successful Farming, Teen Vogue, Town & Country, Traditional Home, Veranda, W, Woman’s Day, Wood